Cozy Chic: Fashion as Inspiration in a New Family Home

Inspired in part by the fundamentals of fashion, interior designer Elizabeth Krueger sets an elegant yet family-friendly style for a new Chicago home.

As with the classic black dress found in most women’s wardrobes, a black motif in an interior space provides the perfect foundation for building an elevated and fresh look, interior designer Elizabeth Krueger says. “Black is my favorite color, and it’s interesting, because, depending on the light, it can have a charcoal cast to it or a really rich black or blue. I like that it’s a chameleon color and that it works well with the other colors it’s paired with.”

Layers of Personality

In the same way she’d add a fabulous pair of shoes or piece of jewelry to a black dress, Krueger layered luxe furnishings onto a simple, yet impactful, foundation of Iron Ore SW 7069 (251-C7) in the Chicago home she designed for her brother’s family. Among the furnishings used were a pair of living room chairs covered in Mongolian lambskin. “They were chairs my brother wasn’t quite sure about,” she says. “But I was confident in their value and told him, ‘You have to have them. And if you don’t take them, I will!’”

Off-white furnishings and a pair of oversized mirrors in the living room reflect light and balance out the walls painted Iron Ore SW 7069 (251-C7).

A Common Thread

The same Iron Ore color used on the living and dining room walls extends to the windows, doors and cabinetry throughout the house. Cabinet panels on kitchen appliances, along with glass-front cabinets flanking the range, create the look of a living space with furniture pieces, Krueger says. “I think you can get away with that more in doing the Iron Ore color than doing a white or pale gray. It feels more striking.”

Iron Ore also extends to the main bath cabinets, doors and mirrors, where it pairs with honed marble tile.

Permission to Wander

Krueger’s love of nature inspires her work, including a willingness to take chances. “I love it when you can let your mind wander and see things for their beauty,” she says. The same goes for travel. “Getting out of your day-to-day routine helps you see things from a fresh perspective,” Krueger says. “You’re really able to see how people live and pull from different experiences, different architecture, different food, different colors.”